Do No Harm: New NBC TV Series; Cancel or Keep It?

Last week, NBC aired their newest Thursday night drama, Do No Harm. Will the series be quickly cancelled or become a big ratings smash for the network? Cancel or keep it?

Do No Harm revolves around Doctor Jason Cole (Steven Pasquale), a dedicated neurosurgeon with an unusual problem. Every night, at 8:25pm, he becomes someone else — an alternate and evil version of himself who goes by the name Ian Price. Jason has managed to keep his alter ego from appearing, thanks to medication. Unfortunately, the serum stops working suddenly and Ian appears, more dangerous than ever.

In addition to Pasquale, Do No Harm also features the talents of Alana de la Garza, Ruta Gedmintas, Phylicia Rashad, Mousa Kraish, Michael Esper, John Carroll Lynch, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Samm Levine.

The show debuted last week to a truly meager 0.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 3.12 million total viewers. It was in a distant third place in its timeslot. It’s also believed to be the lowest demo rating for a scripted series premiere in TV history among the four major broadcast networks.

The previous record holders were FOX’s The Return of Jezebel James in 2008 and NBC’s Bent sitcom from last March. Both registered a 1.0 rating and were off the air in three weeks.

While NBC hasn’t pulled Do No Harm off the schedule yet, it’s clear that this series is doomed to be cancelled soon. It also looks very unlikely that all 12 produced episodes will end up airing.

While the show was in production, the network trimmed the episode order from 13 to 12 installments. This was supposedly done because they wouldn’t have room on the schedule for a full baker’s dozen. In retrospect, execs are probably wishing that they’d cut a lot more than just one.

But, what do you think? Do you like Do No Harm? Are you hoping that it survives somehow or are you reconciled to the fact that it will be cancelled? If you were running the network, what would you do?

LOVE LOVE LOVE the show. Why do you networks keep cancelling good shows?? I am about to just give up on television! Sick of all the reality shows, talk shows, etc. Its boring and old. I’ll just cancel tv and watch movies!!!
GIVE THE SHOW A CHANCE !!!!!

I do not want you to cancel this show, Do No Harm. THE SHOW JUST NEEDS TO BE PUT IN A DIFFERENT TIME SLOT(sorry for the caps but I just wanted to make a statement). There are two shows that I watch and record at that time slot and most cable companies do not allow you to watch a third show while two are being recorded. I love the show, he is handsome and this second show was so heartfelt. He not only turned in the bad guys but he bought a very expensive instrument to operate on this girl… Read more »

I love this show! Reallly? Cancelled after only two episodes? Come on. Most haven’t even heard of it because it is so new and haven’t had a chance to see it with 4 billion shows on a day. Bad idea to cancel it.

Keep the show on. I watched the first episode on demand and loved it. This show deserves a chance. I mean really two episodes and now it is cancelled. At least them air the rest of the episodes, the ratings might go up.

Ive seen almost nothing about this show so I never watched it. All I remember from any vague previews was some light changing effect in a comercial about his alter ego. Thats it. Nothing I saw showed anything of interest of why I should tune in…so I didnt. May be a great show but since they didnt give me a reason to watch and such low ratings no reason to start now.